Oil painting Still Lifes - BaldinoArt

adhuc vita" - a term that today has the meaning of representation of inanimate subjects. This term introduced in Italy at the end of the eighteenth century, is the improper translation of the Dutch term still-leven, or literally "immovable nature".

The painting of furnishings, fruit, vegetables, books, furnishings and everyday objects in general, already present in the Middle Ages, sees its starting point as an artistic expression towards the end of the 1500s.

In Italy it was after the Council of Trent (1563), that the so-called "still life" acquired the new and more considered symbolic value, in fact from that date, inanimate objects were considered capable of having an evocative and devotional power.

From Caravaggio's Basket of Fruit, which is probably the most famous still life in the history of art painted at the end of the 16th century, up to the volumes of Cézanne's paintings passing through the still lifes with a black background by Goya and later by Joan Mirò.